by K. J. Emrick
Addie was surprised to hear Seth described like that. She and Seth had never gone out for tea together, but she had always thought of him as hardworking and dedicated.
Then again, she’d been wrong before. Twice today, in fact.
“I never knew that,” she admitted.
“Well, like you said,” Maria repeated, “you don’t really know anything at this point.”
“Hey,” Willow snapped. “We know plenty. We already know he was—”
“No,” Addie said over her. “We don’t know anything for sure. Seth was definitely murdered but the police haven’t determined the cause of death yet. Neither have we.”
Maria sighed. “Look, Addie, Willow, I’m sorry I’m being so short with you. I’m just under a lot of pressure. When that tourist died in the cabins off Old Lutherfud Road, no one got too worked up about it. That guy wasn’t one of us. This time, the victim was someone we all knew, even if we didn’t know everything about him.” She stopped as her breath caught in her throat. “Sorry. I’m just tired. My point is we all knew Seth. For him to die in front of so many people like that… did I mention how many calls I’ve gotten this morning?”
Addie thought she understood where Maria was coming from. She didn’t appreciate it, but she understood. Maria was a politician, and the voices of the people were what determined what she cared about on any given day, even in a small town like Shadow Lake.
“We’ll come back when we know something,” Addie promised her. “Come on, Willow.”
Outside, back on the sidewalk heading for Addie’s Jeep, Willow hissed, “Why didn’t you let me tell her off? You’re the one who figured out that Seth was poisoned!”
“Because she annoyed me, just as much as she was annoying you.” Addie shook her head. “I just didn’t want to get into a big argument over what we’re doing right or wrong. It will be easier to go back to her when we’ve got the whole mystery figured out and we can lay the blame on someone for her.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. She certainly was in a mood today, wasn’t she?”
“There was something going on there, that’s for sure.” Addie stopped and looked back at the town hall, considering everything she had just heard. “Did you see her expression when she was talking about how Seth might be trying to extort money from Cavallo? There’s something to that. Maybe we didn’t know Seth like I thought we did.”
“You think? Well, all I know is that if we’re the ones taking care of the town’s problems, then maybe we should be getting a little more respect from the town. You know?”
“We don’t do this for a thank you, Willow.”
“No, but a thank you wouldn’t hurt, either.”
She wasn’t wrong, Addie thought to herself. “I don’t imagine it will get better, either, until the murderer is caught. She’s right about one thing. This one does hit very close to home.” She hesitated at the Jeep, with the door half open. A thought had occurred to her that she didn’t much like. “You don’t think this is that other witch, do you? That Belladonna Nightshade? Could this be her doing, trying to get at us again?”
Willow shrugged. “You didn’t feel any trace of magic at Seth’s death. I don’t think it’s much like an evil witch to use poison to kill someone when she can just use magic to do it. This isn’t the story of Snow White, and Seth wasn’t taking a bite out of an apple. You know what I mean?”
“Yes, I do.” Willow was right again. The fairy tales sold by Disney didn’t have a lot of truth in them when it came to how they portrayed witches. “Well, let’s get back to it before anything else happens. I’ve already had to shut down my café today. Not to mention getting a fallen angel mad at me. The day can’t get any worse.”
“Hey! Hey, Addie! Hey, Willow!”
The voice shouting at them from half a block away was a warbling tenor that was unmistakable. Addie winced and turned to see that yes, that was Constable Herman Bledsoe, running right for them.
“You just had to say it,” Willow teased her, “didn’t you?”
“Say what?” Addie asked her.
“You never, ever say ‘things can’t get any worse’ unless you actually want them to get worse.”
Addie grumbled under her breath, because she knew the truth of that. “Herman, what do you want? We’re really busy.”
He was out of breath when he caught up to them. His narrow chest was pumping like a bellows under his baggy brown shirt, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he gathered his thoughts. “I’m ready to arrest Eleanor Griggs. The board of selectmen said I had to get, um.” He had to clear his throat to get the words unstuck from his craw. “Gosh darn it, they said I needed your permission. So I’m asking. Just remember—”
“You’re the constable,” Willow finished for him this time. “We know, Herman. Why are you arresting Eleanor, exactly?”
He blinked his big round eyes. “Because she killed Seth Hunter. Why else?”
Addie closed the driver’s door on the Cherokee, and came around to their side of the Jeep. “First of all, Herman, keep your voice down.”
“Oh,” he said, as if that had only just occurred to him. “Right, right.”
“Secondly, how do you know she killed Seth?”
Blink, blink, went his eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? Now she gets to be town manager by default. Easy win for her. She had the motive.”
Addie was actually impressed that he’d gotten to that conclusion by himself. “Okay, but she’s not the only one who had a motive.”
Blink. “Someone else had a motive? Who?”
Well. Obviously he wasn’t as far along as Addie had been giving him credit for. “Let’s try this, Herman. How do you think she killed him? She was on stage with him when he died, right? Do you think she maybe, I don’t know, poisoned him or something?’
She wanted to see if he’d figured that part out for himself. He wouldn’t have seen the images of the past in the Vision like the Kilorian sisters had, or known about the poison Addie had found in the bathroom. She was testing him.
Blink. Blink, blink. “See, I figure she shot him with a needle dart from across the room when no one was looking.”
So much for that. Willow sent a secret smile in Addie’s direction before putting her fist on her hip, and locking gazes with Herman. “A dart gun. You seriously think she used a dart gun.”
“Sure do.” He actually sounded proud of his theory. “I think we need to tell that boyfriend of yours to have the medical examiner check for puncture wounds on Seth’s body. First thing we do, is go arrest Eleanor. So can you please just tell me that I can? After all, I’m the constable.”
He beamed at Willow, because he’d said it first this time.
“Herman, Lucian Knight is not my… oh, never mind,” Addie sighed, deciding not to argue the point this time. Why did everyone keep calling him her boyfriend? He hadn’t even called her all day and they’d only been dating before that. They weren’t up to putting labels on it.
Even if, maybe, Addie was secretly hoping they could be.
She shook her head and brought herself back to the business at hand. “Look, Herman. No one is getting arrested yet. Not until we can prove something.”
“Oh, I can prove it,” he said, banging a hand against his chest. “Just leave her to me.”
“Whoa, there big guy,” Willow told him. “Let’s just everybody slow down, okay? We’re working on finding out the truth. When we do, then we’ll arrest the bad person who killed Seth. In the meantime, no arrests.”
“But…”
“There was no dart gun, Herman.”
“But…”
“No dart gun.”
He shook his head, his brow furrowing. Blink, BLINK. “But…”
Willow snapped her fingers a few times to grab his attention. “Herman. Listen to my voice. There. Was. No. Dart gun.”
The Essence she put into her voice was just enough that Herman had to listen to her. He nodded his head so vigorously now that Addie w
as sure his neck would break. “No dart gun. Of course there wasn’t a dart gun. That would be silly. Who would use a dart gun right out there on stage like that? Sure. Sure, I understand. No sense arresting a woman when you don’t know she’s done anything. I’ll go and tell Maria that right now. Sure.”
Then he left, walking up the sidewalk toward the town hall.
“Boy,” Willow laughed, “I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Why did the board of selectmen hire him, anyway?”
“Because they needed someone to fill out the uniform who didn’t have too high an opinion of himself. Someone who wouldn’t start thinking independently. Turns out that man actually has half a brain in his head.”
“Most men only have half a brain, in my experience.” Willow laughed at her own joke, and then got in the Jeep on her side. “Come on. I want to get this done so we can go back and see Kiera and her son. God alone knows what’s been going on between those two without us there to tell Alan embarrassing stories about Kiera.”
Addie thought about it. “Does Kiera even have any embarrassing stories?”
“Of course she does! Alan will love to hear them.”
“If Alan’s even awake yet,” Addie agreed.
“Still asleep?” Willow asked in disbelief. “How much of a whammy did you put on him?”
Addie started the car. “I used what I needed to. It might have been too much, but I was in a rush. He was getting a little out of hand.”
“Too bad he’s family. I wouldn’t mind keeping him in hand.”
That was her sister. Young and wild and free and always aware of the cute guys around her. Addie was not embarrassed to admit that yes, Alan was cute. However, they were related to him, and more than that, they both had… well, Willow had a boyfriend, anyway. Her and Lucian were quickly becoming nothing more than a question mark.
She put that aside, again, to revisit sometime in the future. Hopefully, not too far in the future. “So. Let’s get out to Cavallo Raithmore’s house. We can ask our questions, and then a quick stop to talk to Eleanor Griggs, and if someone hasn’t confessed to murder by then we’ll head home to see how Kiera’s doing.”
“That sounds good, but can we maybe get some lunch first? I didn’t actually get to eat much at breakfast, thanks to that thing inside of Darla trying to kill us both.”
Darla. One more thing on her list. Kiera’s son was on that list, too, along with what to do about her café, and what to do about Lucian.
At the top of the list, was finding Seth Hunter’s killer.
Was it Mac McDougal? Or Eleanor Griggs? Or Cavallo Raithmore?
Her money was still on Mac, but just like they’d told Constable Herman Bledsoe, they needed proof.
And proof at the moment was in short supply.
The Raithmore estate was more of a mansion than a house. Nestled among tall trees not far from the edge of the lake, it was a two-story architectural marvel of white stucco and columns and a gabled roof of slate tile. From what Addie understood, it had cost more to build than anyone in Shadow Lake was likely to make in their lifetime. The Raithmore fortune was old money. Historical money. That meant deep pockets.
It meant Cavallo Raithmore was used to getting things his way.
“Funny,” Willow said, looking out the window on her side as Addie parked the car.
Addie looked out the window with her at the house. “What’s funny?”
“All that money, all that power, and he’s still got one son in the grave and one in prison. Now he’s all by himself in this huge, empty house.”
“Yeah. Funny how that works.”
“Right. Just like I said.”
Addie smiled at her sister. Sometimes they could be so close. Other times Willow treated her like the enemy. The wounds from their parents’ deaths still ran deep. She looked forward to a day when they could move past it entirely.
“Well,” she said after another moment. “We aren’t going to find anything by sitting here. Let’s go find Cavallo Raithmore.”
They opened the doors and stood there at the car, listening to a strange sound getting closer.
“Do you hear that?” Willow asked Addie.
From around the corner of the house a horse came galloping. Its nose was down, its ears laid flat back against its skull. Muscles bunched and corded under its skin. Sunlight shone off a sleek brown coat as it ran straight at them with breakneck speed.
Willow stumbled back into the car, closing her door. Addie raised her hands, a barrier of solid air forming in front of the car.
The horse ran right up to it, and stopped.
With a rippling that started at the horse’s wide nostrils and continued down, down, down its body, the horse began to morph and reshape itself and change.
Standing up on its hind legs, the change continued, until he wasn’t a horse anymore. It was a man. An incredibly muscular, incredibly naked middle-aged man with a dark brown mane of hair.
Cavallo Raithmore.
Chapter 9
Addie kept her eyes above Cavallo Raithmore’s waist, but only just barely. What she had seen of his nude form was, um, impressive. “Was that absolutely necessary?” she asked him.
“I was enjoying a jog out in the pasture when you pulled in.” He stretched, wiping sweat from his neck and his bare chest. “I didn’t see the need to dress myself in my own front yard. You know what I am. I know what you are.”
“Yes, we’re getting that a lot today.”
The Raithmores were a family of shapeshifters. Each to their own, based on their personalities. Cavallo was a werequine. A horse. One of his sons had been a werewolf, the other a werecat jaguar. It was the trait itself that was passed down from father to son, not the form.
Addie and Willow knew all that, just like he’d said. The magic users in Shadow Lake all knew one another. The Kilorians knew the Raithmores, and the Snyes, and the Cahills. There was a bond of silence between them that kept each of them safe. Cavallo didn’t want his secrets being revealed any more than the Kilorian sisters wanted theirs to get out.
He planted his fists on his hips, proudly displaying what he had to show off. “You’re on my property now, Miss Kilorian. Don’t like the view, then you can leave.”
Addie held her ground. “We have some questions.”
“Then ask them.”
He stood there, smiling at her, hoping to make her uncomfortable. Addie had seen shapeshifters do this before. They thought just because they were men and she was a woman that she would blush and avert her eyes.
She might be uncomfortable, but it would be a cold day in Kilkenny before she let a man like this intimidate her with his… physique.
Willow stepped out of the car again, leaning over the top of the doorframe, not afraid at all to let her eyes wander. “I can see your sons took after their father, Mister Raithmore.”
“I’d thank you for the compliment,” he said stonily, “but since you and your sisters are responsible for what happened to my sons, I’ll thank you instead not to mention them at all.”
Addie cleared her throat, drawing his attention back to her. “We’re here about Seth Hunter.”
“I gathered as much. Now. If you have questions to ask I’ll entertain them here, as long as you’re brief.” When Addie still hesitated, he flipped his hair back from his forehead. “My home, remember? My rules.”
“Fine, then answer me this.” Addie figured there was no sense in arguing with him about it. Not if she wanted to get any answers at all out of him. “You said yesterday that you were hoping to get your real estate transactions passed through the town selectmen now that Seth Hunter wasn’t here to block you.”
“I stand by that statement. So?”
“What real estate are you hoping to buy? What was Seth keeping you from getting, Mister Raithmore?”
He snorted a laugh, a very horse-like sound. “Is that all? I do have telephones here at the estate. You could have phoned that one in.”
“Sure,�
� Willow said brightly, “but then we wouldn’t get to see your… face, when we asked.”
Now Addie thought she might actually be blushing. Leave it to Willow. “Cavallo, this is a serious matter. A man is dead. If you don’t want to answer my questions here—” She had to stop her eyes from drifting down again. “—um, then you can answer them for the board of selectmen. Then the whole thing can come out. Your deal, and any offer you made personally to Seth Hunter.”
His eyes grew wider, and his arrogant posture deflated a little. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Addie heard the lie in his voice. They’d hit a nerve by suggesting Seth was taking a bribe from Cavallo to make this mysterious land deal happen. Maria had been right to suspect Seth of underhanded dealing, by the look of things.
“If you and Seth were into some shady deal,” Addie said, meaning it as a threat, “that might give you even more reason to kill him than you already had. Perhaps a careful look through of Seth’s finances would turn up something interesting.”
His bravado returned, his eyes flashing defiance. “Feel free, Miss Kilorian. You and your sisters do your worst. Whatever deals that Seth and I might have had going—and I stress that word, might—they would have been verbal in nature. Nothing on paper. Ever. I’ve been at this far too long to make a mistake like that.”
“Says the naked man in his driveway,” Addie pointed out.
His smile showed long, perfect teeth. “As I said. It’s my driveway. Now. You’ve asked your questions, and it’s time for you to leave.”
Willow stepped out past the end of the car door. “Hold on. Where were you before the debate started yesterday?”
“Where? Why, right here, of course.”
“Was there anyone here who could verify that for us?”
“No,” he said, heat rising in his voice. “Not since you and your sisters took my sons away from me. I’m all by myself thanks to you. Now go away.”
He turned sideways to them, giving them a perfect look at his… profile, and then he leapt up into the air.